Morgan Stanley Warns AI Chipflation Spreads to Broader Economy

Morgan Stanley’s June 3 report warns that AI-driven memory price surges are creating chipflation now hitting corporate margins, cloud costs and consumer electronics beyond data centers. The story began May 28 with Micron’s $13.643B Q1 revenue and 66% cloud margins, escalated as Samsung, SK Hynix and Micron each topped $1T market cap by May 29, and peaked with Gartner’s May 31 forecasts of 125% DRAM and 234% storage price jumps in 2026. Hyperscalers remain sold out through 2027, pushing memory prices up six-fold and forcing Microsoft to attribute $25B of its $190B spend to higher chip costs.